Gratitude and Work

   
          Now that I've joined the Facebook generation, I've found myself wondering what will happen to my waistline.  Facebook, e-mail, researching information on the computer, that's a lot of time SITTING, and less time doing physical things.  It doesn't mean I'm not working--the computer has become an important work tool for me.  It does mean that my work has taken on a different hue.  One with which  I'm not yet completely comfortable.  I am, after all, from a different generation.
           One thing I noticed, as I was growing up, was the incredible work ethic of my grandparents.  Both sets of grandparents were always busy providing for the needs of their families, and that meant physical labor, and a lot of it!  Although they napped for a while each afternoon, in the hours before and after their rest they were working.  As a child, I watched my Grandpa Durfee and his sons build a house they would later sell to help provide for family needs.  I saw them helping one another, and helping my mom complete the construction of our home after my father died. 
         My dad's parents were Italian and they had a huge garden, a vineyard, orchard, and chestnut trees.  My grandpa and uncles were forever clearing away brush, weeding, pruning, planting and picking.  That was in addition to my uncles' regular employment away from home. 
         My aunts were busy cooking meals, doing laundry, tending children, encouraging civility and enterprise, and dispensing love in generally large doses.  My own mother did those things, as well.  When I was in Junior High School she returned to school to earn her degree as a licensed practical nurse.  She would later earn degrees as a registered nurse and a nurse practitioner. 
         I don't remember people sitting around too often with time on their hands.  However, there were periods of rest and recreation--playing bocce ball on the lawn, or watching a Saturday afternoon Red Sox or Yankees game on television at the Norcia farm.  And sometimes we'd go out to Sandy Point on the boat owned by my mom's brothers.  There we could spend a few hours picnicking and swimming.  We also had cousins and friends to play with.  However, these were generally "earned" privileges that came after our homework and chores were completed.  And we did have chores!  There was gardening to do, house cleaning, and tending the chickens.  Some of us had newspaper routes after school and on weekends.  As an additional part of our weekly routine, we were also expected to take our turns helping with the laundry and ironing, and with dinner preparations and clean up. 
          If all that sounds a little overwhelming, it wasn't.  It was the way life was, and it was healthy.  There were no computers, let alone computer games.  We had a party line with two neighboring families and often had to "wait our turn" to use the phone.  There were no 2 or 3 hour phone conversations with friends, and no begging for a phone of our own.  We asked before we plopped down on the living room rug to relax in front of a television show because watching T.V. was the exception.
         The other thing I remember about my grandparents, aunts and uncles, were their frequent expressions of gratitude for all they had. My Italian grandparents had moved to the United States to live and work in a Massachusetts mill town, just for the opportunity to have a better life than they had known in "the old country".   It wasn't until years later, with the help of an uncle, that they bought a small farm in rural Connecticut.  All the relatives in the generation before mine lived through a severe depression in this country.  They knew what "hungry" felt like, because they sometimes went to bed having eaten little or nothing.  They knew what moldy flour tasted like, because sometimes it was the only flour they had.  They knew the exhilaration of watching their gardens grow because they had taken the time to plant and tend them, but they knew more than that.  They were aware that sometimes all the planting and tending and watchful care in the world could come to nothing, because sometimes the earth did not produce if there was to much rain, or too little rain, or disease. Knowing how capricious nature can be, and how hard food was to come by, even from the grocer, they also knew a dependence upon God, and gratitude to their Creator for providing for their needs.  They knew that body aches and fatigue, even in productive years, were necessary to make the earth yield a harvest.  They knew the exertion required to catch a fine "haul" of fish.  And they knew that the after effects of sore muscles and aching joints were a whole lot better than the feeling of hungry.  
         Hard work, back then, was usually productive work.  I remember the joy on my Grandmother Durfee's face as she picked a bouquet of flowers she had grown in her yard, and my Grandpa Norcia proudly displaying the chicken eggs he had gathered from the coop and placed in his brimmed hat.  I remember my mother beaming with pleasure at the jars of canned beans, peaches, jams and soups she had "put up"; not to mention the freezer filled with produce she had blanched and packed away in plastic freezer boxes. I also remember the excitement as she earned her diploma in nursing.
         Am I stuck on living in the past?  I don't think so.  However, I am stuck on remembering that there used to be a physical component to life that was much more prevalent than it is today.  Sitting at the computer or playing with your cell phone seems, to me, to lead to more sedentary preoccupations, like games and texting--even while driving!  I simply fear that we will forget some really important things like: there are people to talk to--face to face; eyes to look in to, to see the sparkle of pride, or joy, or satisfaction reflected there; people to be listened to--really listened to--not just in passing, but with our full attention.  And even though the world has changed in many respects, there are still bodies that benefit from the pain of exertion and a little sweat pouring down the back during an afternoon of gardening, or building, or helping a friend in need; and minds that can be plied to think in new directions and learn new things.
         Yes, I am looking back a bit, but only because there is something to be learned there: hard work, whether mental or physical, feels great, and along with that feeling of satisfaction is the feeling of gratitude--gratitude that you CAN work; gratitude that your labors are productive; gratitude that what you have produced is blessing your family, and gratitude to God, from whom all blessing flow. Gratitude and hard work are twin attributes.  Working hard makes you grateful that you have the capacity to work, and that it produces fruit; and the fruit of your labor produces gratitude that your work has not been in vain.

TODAY'S AWESOME BLESSING:  Thanks to Facebook and e-mail I made contact this week with 3 friends from my younger years.  We hadn't talked in such a long time!  So, you see, I'm not anti-technology.  I just have a great appreciation for focused, productive work.